Former newspaper boss Eddy Shah allegedly raped a schoolgirl on at least six
occasions, a court heard.

Prostitute Susan Davies took the girl to hotel rooms where Mr Shah would assault her, it is alleged.

Mr Shah, 69, who founded the now defunct Today newspaper, is one of three people accused of assaulting the girl in the 1990s when she was aged between 13 and 15.

He appeared at the Old Bailey on Tuesday alongside Ms Davies, 53, and Anthony Pallant, also 53, for the first day of their trial.

Mr Shah, of Chippenham, Wiltshire, is facing six counts of rape of a girl aged under 16 between 1993 and 1995.

Ms Davies who the court heard had worked "for many years as an escort and prostitute" has been charged with eight counts of aiding and abetting rape, four counts of aiding and abetting indecent assault, one indecent assault and one of child cruelty.

Mr Pallant, who had a four-year affair with Ms Davies, faces four charges of indecent assault and two of rape between 1991 and 1995.

Gillian Etherton, prosecuting, said Ms Davies, of Swanley, Kent, was a "woman with few moral scruples" who used the victim as a "bargaining object" so she could "continue and enhance her relationship" with Mr Pallant and "curry favour and increase her earnings" with Mr Shar.

The court heard that Ms Davies became obsessed with Mr Pallant, of West Malling, Kent, and they began an affair, even though both already had partners.

Miss Etherton said: "There was nothing it seems she (Ms Davies) would not do to satisfy and please him, particularly sexually."

After a short while, Ms Davies told her friends that Mr Pallant wanted to have threesomes and she tried to persuade them to participate. She also told one friend, Debra Dickinson, that "Tony wanted to sleep with a young girl".

The court heard that the victim was then "deliberately and purposefully" introduced to Mr Pallant in order to satisfy his desire to have a threesome and have sex with a young girl.

Ms Davies witnessed and encouraged the incidents, Miss Etherton said.

The court heard Mr Pallent first sexually assaulted the girl when she was 13.

Miss Etherton said Ms Davies gave the victim alcohol before sending her into a room with Mr Pallent, where she was abused.

"The sexual abuse continued and developed into full sexual intercourse," Miss Etherton said.

She said the rape and sexual abuse took place at Mr Pallent's office, flat and at a number of hotels.

The court heard that the victim was first introduced to Mr Shah at a hotel when she was 14.

It is alleged that Mr Shah asked her if she wanted to go into an adjoining room with him and Ms Davies but she said no.

The next time, also at a hotel, Mr Shah told her to take her clothes off and he had sex with her in the presence of Ms Davies, it is alleged.

"Thereafter and always in hotels, sexual acts took place between Eddy Shah, Susan Davies and the girl," said Miss Etherton.

"She said had to deal with it so she became robotic. She knew what was happening was bad and she still could not believe it."

Miss Etherton said the victim, who is now 34, last saw Mr Shah when she was 15.

She said that all arrangements for both men to see the victim came through Ms Davies.

"Both male defendants knew that they were taking advantage of the victim and knew she was not a willing participant," she said.

The victim reported the abuse to the police and the three defendants were arrested in September 2011.

When interviewed by police, Mr Shah said he had known Ms Davies for many years and had "not only used her services as a prostitute but from time to time, with varying degrees of regularity, they would talk on the telephone," Miss Etherton said.

He had kept in touch with her because he wanted to "keep that line of communication open, just in case" because "he was fearful of repercussions that they would say he had slept with the girl".

All three deny all charges against them accusing the victim of accusing "a series of lies, malice or pure fantasy that never happened".

The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.

Shah, who was charged in his birth name, Selim Shah. was supported in court by his wife Jennifer White Shah, the actress. Mrs Shah, who uses a wheelchair, sat listening to the evidence at the back of the court.

Mr Shah, a father of three, founded Today In 1986. It was a technologically-advanced paper for its time using colour photographs and a desktop publishing system, paving the way for modern media before it closed in 1995.

Mr Shah, who also owned the short lived tabloid The Post, went on to write several novels and now owns Wiltshire Golf and Country Club.